


Not Broken, Just Bent

by Devils_Official



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Abusive Relationships, Allura’s racism towards galra, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Child Abuse, Custody Battle, Divorce, Multi, Post-Divorce
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-14
Updated: 2019-12-14
Packaged: 2021-02-26 22:28:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21786526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Devils_Official/pseuds/Devils_Official
Summary: Lotor leaves his abusive marriage with Allura, but she’s hellbent on making it more difficult.(Title from the P!nk song, “Just Give Me A Reason”)
Relationships: Allura/Lotor (Voltron), Lotor/Sendak (Voltron), endgame Lotor/Sendak
Comments: 11
Kudos: 40





	Not Broken, Just Bent

**Author's Note:**

> The abuse goes one way here, and it’s not coming from Lotor, who, in fact, did nothing wrong. If you don’t like that, feel free to suck my dick.

Sendak found the Emperor alone in a conference room with a smashed tablet in front of him, and several -by the looks of it -shredded sheets of paper strewn about.

He held his head in his hands, and after a moment, Sendak realized that his shoulders were shaking with some silent emotion.

He rapped lightly on the doorframe. “Sire? Is this a bad time?”

Lotor shot upright and furiously rubbed his face before turning around with a bright, completely fake smile. “Commander. How can I help you?”

“It’s the middle of the night, Sire.”

“And?”

“The night staff wanted to clean this room, but they didn’t want to disturb you.”

“So they sent you,” Lotor said, laughing brightly. 

After seven years of working closely with him, Sendak knew that Lotor was acting as if nothing was wrong.

It so obviously was, though. 

“Sire,” Sendak began, as tactfully as possibly, “perhaps you should consider going to bed? You’ll be seeing your children tomorrow, and-“

Lotor stood up abruptly. “No, I will not!”

Sendak instinctively took a step back. “...is something the matter?”

Lotor laughed bitterly. “Yes, I suppose you could say that. She’s-“ And there was only ever one ‘she’ Lotor referred to like that when it came to his children “-trying to take away my children. Permanently.”

“That violates the terms of the divorce,” Sendak said. “She can’t-“

“She’s alleging that I- I abused my children!” He shouted, starting to pace up and down the conference room. “That I am an unfit father! That I- that I assaulted her.”

“And did you? Are you?”

“How the fuck can you fucking ask me that!” Lotor shouted. “My children are my life! They are everything to me! I would never hurt them! I- She was the love of my life, my first love. How can she do this to me?”

His anger seemed to have dissipated into its base emotions -sadness and confusion -as he sank to the floor, as his voice fell and broke, and before Sendak knew it, he was outright crying. 

“I’m so sorry,” Sendak said. 

It had shocked the entire universe when the divorce between Emperor Lotor and Princess Allura had been announced, only six years after their marriage. Theirs was the love of legends, it had seemed, undying and fated and beyond mortal comprehension.

Sendak had loved before, but never married or had children, so perhaps he didn’t quite know how Lotor was feeling right now, but… He could offer his condolences, and maybe something more.

“Sire,” he began, “if the allegations aren’t true, we could fight them.”

“Who will believe me over her?” Lotor asked wearily. “She’s a Paladin of Voltron and I’m… an exiled brat turned emperor.”

“You are the greatest Emperor the Galra have had since Vrig the Great,” Sendak said seriously and honestly. “You cannot let her get away with this sort of-of slander. If it’s not true, let’s fight it in court, and we will win, because she won’t have the evidence to back it up and then… Then you could get full custody of your children.”

Lotor stared at him like he’d said something truly ridiculous. “Do you really think this matter will be settled by the evidence?”

“Not entirely,” Sendak said. “But courtrooms are merely a different kind of battlefield. We just have to seize the advantage.”

“‘We’?” Lotor asked.

“Of course, Sire. I could not let my Emperor go into battle alone.”

Lotor smiled, still a little sadly, but it was something. “Thank you, Sendak,” he said. “You’ve been a good friend and advisor to me these last seven years.” 

Sendak bowed his head. “Thank you, Sire.” 

* * *

It had not started out like that, obviously. 

Sendak hadn’t wanted to work with Haggar, following the Kral Zera and Lotor’s subsequent rise to the throne, but it had seemed, at the time, like he’d had little choice. To him, it had seemed like Lotor had stolen the throne, through showmanship and manipulation, rather than taken it honorably.

Sendak had also been… untrusting of his alliance with Voltron. He knew firsthand how dangerous they could be, how unpredictable and uncontrollable. 

In time, he came to realize that Haggar didn’t care for the Galra Empire, either, only power for herself, and that she would destroy everything if no one stopped her.

So… He’d switched sides, brought the Fire of Purification back under Imperial Control, and…

He’d thought, at the time, that once their common enemy was gone, the Empire would split again, only… once given a chance, Lotor proved himself worthy of the throne.

He wasn’t Zarkon, or even anything remotely like Zarkon, but that wasn’t what the Empire needed; the Empire needed an Emperor like Lotor.

The war ended, and after a few short months, Lotor married the Altean Princess, and it seemed like a good match.

Sendak, meanwhile, became one of Lotor’s closest and most trusted advisors, one that Lotor trusted to run things when Lotor wasn’t at Central Command.

Which was quite frequently; the Princess refused to live there, and Lotor was under her thrall, desperately and hopelessly lovesick.

Sendak had no strong opinion about the marriage one way or another. The Princess had refused to become Lotor’s consort, and therefore, while she was entitled to a certain degree of respect, she was not Sendak’s Empress, and she had little official say in Galra affairs.

(He could tell, though, that Lotor was heavily influenced by her, and he supposed that was to be expected of a newly married couple.)

Over the course of their marriage, they had two children, a girl -the eldest -and a boy, born less than a year before their divorce. 

Sendak wasn’t privy to the details of the divorce. He only knew that Lotor had tried to keep it private and not drag it out in front of the entire universe, and more importantly, his own Empire.

Galra, after all, only very rarely divorced. It wasn’t necessarily stigmatized, but there was always a reason for divorce -usually abuse and mistreatment -and since Lotor hadn’t made the reason public, there was heavy speculation, especially since he’d given custody of the children to the Princess without a fight, provided she let him visit them frequently. 

And now… Now all of that was going to be made public, every dirty secret that Lotor hadn’t wanted the universe to know. 


End file.
